EPA brings big Brownfields bucks to Sanford Town will use $800,000 grants for CGA, mill sites

Thursday

Oct 4, 2012 at 3:15 AM

By Shawn P. SullivanSanford News Editor

SANFORD — Federal officials came to Sanford with a big check on Friday — one for $800,000 that the town will use to clean and assess local properties.

During a special event at the Sanford Town Club on Sept. 28, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Curt Spaulding, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree and representatives of Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins formally presented Brownfields grants to officials from Sanford and from throughout the state. The government first announced the awards in May.

The EPA's Brownfields program assists communities and organizations with their efforts to expand, redevelop or reuse properties that may be contaminated with pollutants or hazardous substances.

Sanford Town Manager Steven Buck and Town Councilors Joseph Hanslip and Anne Marie Mastraccio accepted the check on Friday.

Sanford will use $200,000 of the grant to clean up hazardous substances at the former CGA site on New Dam Road, once circuit boards and other debris are removed from the area. CGA was a recycling business that reclaimed copper from computer circuit boards using an acid wash. The EPA funded an environmental investigation of the site in 2007 that determined that copper arsenic, lead, zinc, thallium, petroleum and asbestos were the primary contaminants there. The town foreclosed on the property in 2010 at the urging of neighbors who wanted the site cleaned up. Since then, the town has spent several thousand dollars to remove an underground storage tank, an old mobile home, and various piles of debris. However, large, unsecured waste piles remain on the site.

Sanford will use another $200,000 of the Brownfields grant to clean up petroleum at a small site within Sanford's historic downtown millyard that is situated near the Mousam River. The remaining $400,000 of the grant will be used to conduct environmental assessments in various areas of the community, namely around the millyard — $200,000 for petroleum assessment and $200,000 for hazardous substances.

Portions of both assessment grants will also be used to support community outreach activities.

In all, the EPA presented $4.3 million in Brownfields funds to communities throughout Maine. On Friday, officials also presented a check for $500,000 to Paul Schumaker, the executive director of the Southern Maine Regional Planning Commission. The commission will use the money to expand its Revolving Loan Fund. As well, officials presented checks to visiting representatives of the Dover-Foxcroft Historical Society, the Northern Maine Development Commission, the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council, the Washington County Council of Governments and the municipalities of Old Town, Rockland and Wilton.

Sanford has received approximately $2.6 million in Brownfields grants in recent years, according to Planning Director James Gulnac, who oversees the town's Brownsfields program. On Friday, Spaulding praised Sanford's officials' successful efforts to apply for the EPA funds.

"Sanford is competing well for dollars," he said. "This community rocks in the Brownfields program."

Spaulding also applauded Maine towns in general that are taking on the challenge of rehabilitating their mills with "gusto and determination."

Buck in turn commended the EPA, noting that its partnerships with communities is critical to the success of projects.

"If you partner with the EPA, work gets done," Buck said.

Before the presentation, guests roamed the Town Club and checked out exhibits highlighting local efforts to revitalize the mill yard. Representatives of Northland Enterprises and Wright-Pierce, for example, were there to showcase their rehabilitation and construction efforts at the Sanford Mill and the new access road connecting Emery and High streets, for example.

Ineliz Rijo, a senior at the Sanford Regional Technical Center (SRTC), also attended and displayed models of the historic Goodall mills that SRTC's 3-D printer created. SRTC has worked hard in recent years to demonstrate to the town that its students and staff have skills and resources to offer to assist efforts to revitalize the mill yard. After the presentation, Pingree took a moment to visit Rijo's display and listen to her explain how the printer works.

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